I sit in Cabana (Jo works here) like so often in the last days. The kids enjoying the pool, having fun and I have time to write and share my fears from the past weeks

The 22nd of December the Volcano Krakatau Anak erupted and a landslide triggered a small tsunami. Small is relative, around 500 people died and loads of people got injured. Nevertheless Jo left to Jakarta on the 25th and I heard in my first night alone back home some big bengs. I didn’t pay to much attention, cause I’ve been busy with my phone waiting for a signal and I heard them earlier already. After felt 50 times trying to get connected with my phone provider I gave up and went to sleep. Next day on the local market my phone rung. I picked up and Jo said, that he tried to get in touch with me last night. I directly have to get our most important stuff in the car and have to be ready to evacuate, cause the volcano erupted again.”Oooookay..” I thought.

Only on the way home his words got through and when I arrived in our village somehow a kind of panic grabbed me. So I packed pretty fast our most important stuff and threw it into the car. When I let myself fell into the car seat, the other German from this area arrived to visit me. After half an hour discussion, I’ve been a bit more relaxed. But still I left the village with Tippi on board. Everyone else I left behind with the idea they will survive on their own.So we drove to the Airport in Krui which is 200 m above the sea level and had been recommended by Jo. We checked out our place for the night and spent the rest of the day in German company at PalmbeachKrui (5 min far away from our safe place).

Sleeping well is something else, but we survived in many ways. Next day we drove back home in our village after spending the morning at PalmbeachKrui again. Our chicks, the rabbits and our cat were happy to have us back? Or just to get food, however I still wasn’t me. At least Jo wanted to come back home the same night and all my phones were charged with power and money so we could at least get warned.Back home I started to build a better bed for the car and filled up missing things. I was busy and had not much time for reflecting the unbearable silence of our village and listening to the voices in my head.

Then Jo was back again and after a long talk at the beach I could release more and more my fears. Still I didn’t wanted to be alone at home with the kids. Being alone in charge for the survival for all of us in a known and jet unknown world wasn’t very convincing. So we ended up in Cabana for the rest of the year. It wasn’t a real ending up, more like being close to Jo and looking for deflection. The garden around the restaurant was for me from the beginning a pity to look at. So I offered me and myself helping and creating a appropriate landscape which was gladly accepted. Such a wonderful distraction…

And jeah, so far no one complained about my creative gush which I love to look at.And then one day I was driving around looking for plants and the sun was in her afternoon moments where the light is always a special delight and I looked at the surrounding and thought: what a splendid piece of earth, a place to die for. And tears dripped my cheek down like so often the days before..

And now I sit here, the sun is shining like nothing happen, I still have chicken skin but I don’t want to leave. I would love to leave the fear behind and run away from danger but somehow I’m caught in my love to this patch of earth, even the decision to build and start here our future is a bit shaky at the moment.

Already one year we live now without running water, without fridge, without washing machine and with loads of black outs during the rainy season. Our family member number grew and shrimped again and at the moment we count 23. Four of us, 15 chicken, 2 rabbits, one cat and our beloved dog Tippi. Ok, I didn’t add and count the mouses, rats and squirrels we kind of feeding, inadvertent. Nature, we live in and live with her.

A year of observation is over. We had many highs and some deeps, but nothing we could have made anywhere else. Still its kind of special here, special for westerner and we still made it. I didn’t reach made goals but I got showered with experiences and found unbelievable answers to question I already forgot about. The life in this village and in this house have revealed findings, I’ve never expected. We learned so much in the school of life and I’m more then grateful for it.

And yes, that’s for sure now, we gonna stay! Stay, even I had some serious doubts at the end. I’ve been in doubt of the on going erosion and the lost of our land, doubts to bring the family in the danger of a tsunami, doubts because of a missing good health system, doubts because of the prognosis of the climate change and some others. And then when my doubts have been greatest my mom came over for holiday and threw me my own words to my head. Ever since all doubts gone, I gonna face the fear and accept my place in the circle of life. Even there are loads of good reasons to run away, I don’t let me scare, so we will stay. Thanks MOM

Even Jo made up his mind now, in the pasted year he was the one who wanted to return to Bali, because life is so much easier over there. Yes, comfort is the bad thing all .. But other people figured this out earlier.Jo is right now in Bali and he sees again the consequences of the unbridled tourism but with a distance that makes him reflect differently. Conclusion: distance and extreme situations are good! And that we live in a extreme situation would at least half of the world confirm, also our guest who have been brave enough to come over and stayed with us.

What our visitor convinced next to the simple way of living is definitely this stunning nature. Hold on, nature? According to Wiki, nature is untouched by human. And a neighbor told me until 50 years ago the rain forest was still up to the beach here. So all the coconut palms which are doing this wonderful outlines in front of this breathtaking sunsets are planted!!! Even so what breathtaking mean can be experienced here with body and soul.

So we extended our rented house for an other year. I wanted to hold it longer because it always get me so lovely back on the ground and remind me what we really need. Now we will be forced to build our own house, I hope we can keep it as simple as possible. Won’t be easy cause there are so many things we are used to and makes life so simple. Unfortunate this comfort makes most of us spendthrift. Well I’m curious how far we can keep it as simple as possible to put an end to the immoderateness (very interesting immorderatenes is an synonym for wastefulness, at least in German).

So, who really likes to get back to roots, or want to experience the extreme (normal for down here), should save some space and get down here in our rented house the upcoming year! I promise you will leave enriched and this without a full case!

Until than you will find me creating our garden (I always need help), observing the last bit of nature, to find the best way to plant in harmony with and do some more upcycling.

And again loads of time pasted. Productive time I have to say, indeed hard to catch in pictures but I try to update you about my doings.

I built for exmaple this fancy flower pot from founded wood residues. I prepared it like I learned some years ago at the KulKulFarm in Bali. Some stones, so the roots are not molding in standing water, topped with eggs cardboard, cause its full of cellulose and rich of carbon, after that green kitchen waste and finished with normal soil. What a perfect enviremont for breeding.

I also towed a banana stem into my garden. I eroded it and now I try even here to breed some plants. What a luck everything sprout and I love to watch the wonder of nature. One thing I rethought was taking apart the sprouts. Thats definetly not natural. Not sure if this is what I want for future, lets see if I find other ways.

When watering the garden, big weeds like to come by and cover the small ones of cool fresh wet. For sure all want to grow and because there is no weed I like to pour this of course.

After all it takes a lot of strengh to discoer all the new things and water is the foundation of life. We all know this. The kids from our village paly with everthing what they can catch. Baby Birds, Dragonflys, Geckos, Turtles, Squirrels are torcherd animals and I have to swallow if I hear or see this wonderfull creatures suffer. So hard to find the words to get to the children if anyone around is doing the same. Here one of our neighbores brought a baby flying dog who wanted rather to sleep than to sit in the sun.

Even our chicks have to suffer which I can delimited at least a bit. Every day I have to remind Ella and Ida that they feel the same as us, pain. Somehow it doesn’t stick in the head and I feel like a record. ” If someone doesn’t understand after repeating and repeating you should change your used words.” Mhm, my mind is blown out, so much I tried to change my words. Anyway I have been keen collecting straw and expanding our chicken barn with free material. First new chicks are there and more are coming.

And then there was an other party in the village, where I helped again. Baking, cooking, snip, washing dishes somehow it binds, connect, unite. Also this time i felt much more welcome and got asked so much more things and? I got a new recipe! Like always without measure details but hey, I have time to find out like I did before. What a different life down here. Exciting and educational.

Wahoo and then one day the big swell arrived like predicted. Unfortunate in a combination which cost a lot of land. Spring tide and big waves, Jo’s working place is directly at the beach and got hit by this. That was definitely not funny. Not just a bit scary to see the waves rumbling into the place. Also our land had loss, the hole beach as well and our fisher harbor is gone, completely. No more river at the beach to swim in and the scenery changed, bushes which covered the view into the interior, gone. The power of nature. the power of the ocean.

And it can be sooo nice at the beach and it is, most of the time, but this swell was just huge! Nevertheless I’m still more than happy with my fingers in the ground and the head in salty air. Even my three girls taste better every day here. What a pleasure.

Everyone out there: feel greeted and invited to help or just to drop by!

Well, time is running, we are already almost a month back home. Sorry for not updating you such a long time. We had some trouble with adapting to this time zone but since 5 days we are waking up again with the chicken and the sunrise. Finally I have to say and also a rhythm is sneaking in, which is actually not a rhythm at least not, what I have been up to. But like a German saying: “Most of the times it comes in a different way and also not like planned”. At least we are united as a family again, even there wasn’t much time to miss our life back here as we have been packed with activities back in Europe.

And there is a lot to miss down here actually next to Papa. For example this stunning reef in our back yard where we go as often as we can for snorkeling. This underwater world put us off into a magic space which the kids can´t get saturated from. I ordered precautionary a book over most of the fishes of the Indian Ocean. Now we are able to know what kind of fishes living in here and also the names in all the other languages we are surrounded by. As long as I know there is no dictionary available for what the people speak down here, Lampungnese. So we asked for help a local fisher and his knowledge is just amazing!

And then there is our favorite chicken which we have more often thought of. But that had to seriously get used to us again first! What life everything is teaching us down here. Not possible to learn from a book or in a classroom or could get thought by a teacher, just life them self can provide such a lecture. We are so rich of them and even do not recognize them most of the time. That`s why I am more than happy to write the blog or go back to Europe so I have time to reflect. My training of mindfulness is still in progress and a consistently accompanying theme.

And that´s not because I do Yoga from time to time. I recognized there is something going totally wrong between me and the kids. And this happened unfortunately first 2 years ago. Yoga definitely helps with attentiveness but the awareness is just the beginning and to change old structure of thinking you need something else. Anyway I am more than happy that my kids are into Yoga and I hope to integrate this more and more in our world, cause the benefits are obvious.

I´ve spent a lot of time in the garden of our rented house. Jo wasn’t to often at home so the cows eat almost all our planted things after they trampled the fence. So I had to find new building material to be able to fix the broken parts. After I´ve repaired the fence I took care of the beets (I took the chance and improved them a bit), put new plants into the earth. Than one day, we went away I came back home and all my new plantations, eaten! the following day I found the culprit! A sweet calve found a little gap. I shooed did away, fixed the fence again and ever since, knock knock knock, no more cow in the garden! Nevertheless pretty aggravating. All the work I´ve spent, but it´s always worth it and it wasn’t really work, cause: “If you love what you do you will never work again.” This has been already a long time my favorite saying and comes true again. At least the cows spare some flowers, a little reward with a big happiness.

But the Monitor Lizard, who killed already so many of our chicks, can not be stopped by the fence. After I saw him climbing a coconut tree I`m wondering anyway why he is not coming at night and empties the chicken coops. In any case we were able to observe him on his foray through our garden.

Also other already long time planned projects I`ve started. Somehow the visit to Germany inspired me. Even if we still don`t know what to do, I ve started to fill up milk boxes with trash I collected. I want to build the garage out of it. This has aroused the interest in some of my neighbor, like: “What this crazy white ghost doing now again?” Really crazy stuff!

As I was observed, I observe the erosion during the big swell right now which violently nibble at our land. We are not sure whether we want to carry the lost. Government forecast is one meter per year and we don`t want to fight with nature, building walls. Our planned year of observation isn’t over jet, still some time to think about it. But time is running. My self- assurance regarding a future here, is at least for the first time a bit wobbly. A BIT!

Jo also figured out, that the garden work isn’t what he is searching for and he wasn’t sure at all from beginning which didn’t affected me at all. His mind got a bit more stable during our stay back in Europe. His uncertainty vanished cause he found a Job. With this money we can live and could even start faster with building up our farm without using our reserves. This basic security is an other condition for our future and we will see what we will see. Jo wasn’t so sure about the future like me. Fear a topic of its own.

Despite the baldness I could harvest cassava from our garden, as it grows under the soil. Unfortunately it doesn’t provide us, so the new Job showed up at the right time. We need the money to buy food and gas for cooking. Anyway this self grown, self harvest and self made Cassava ships were so delicious and have been gone instantly.

And now we come to the question what is the essential in life and how we got alienated? I would say most important in life is Food. Without food we can´t survive, most of us at least! And that most of us are not anymore related to the food we consume is out of discussion. Most things we eat are grown by big companies driven many km through the world, most of us eating proceeded Food. What this alienation brings about, I could scarcely understand myself. And I don´t mean understanding, cause I knew it already longer that´s something wrong about it. What I mean is grasp, grip or fathom and I experienced it through the change of the first and third world. To realize the worth of a thing works for me only when I do it myself. If I don´t do it myself I become lazy, comfy and wasteful, even I am aware of that the comfort is destroying the value of things, wins the simplifying of life. The comfort wins and I things that´s the beginning of wastage for all of us and where that leads we all can see clearly, destroying the world.

I´m more than happy to be back in this simple but hard life, back on my way against wastefulness, back on my way against convenience, back on my way against alienation towards a fulfilled, respectful and mindful life, which I could partly experienced down here already.

Well, I furthermore wished to share this experience and also to pass on to our kids. I just wish for a livable future or at least a future at all for the coming generations. But who doesn’t?

This time I write my review from Germany, the warm, fresh and green Germany. Not so bad here, although I had no desire to come here. We are expecting our first chicks and there is so much to do. ok, cancelled is not postponed (German saying). The farewell parties were definitely bombastic. Not too difficult with the beauty of the beach, the perfect waves, the warm air and the slightly breeze and our bench over there. Bomb fire, stick bread, grilled fish, noodle salad, considerable sunset and others has been the highlights. Actually this parties has been the beginning of a creeping regularity, so sad it has to wait until we are back. It wasn’t only us the farewell reason, Johannes left a few day earlier then us. So sad.

But we didn’t only say good bye to our beach, we also went more often then usual to our ice cream place. It usually didn’t stay with 1 ice cream, the taste is just too good. And that ONE gets abdominal pain from to much ice cream, um, well I’ve tried on my self. What a nonsense. At least I didn’t get problems so the kids have to find out them self. And better now than like me with 25. Lying is not so mine anyway. Its difficult to recognize the little every day lies, but we practice our self, we try as much as possible to be mindful.

And then my first homemade Pizza in Way Jambu! It only happen because Johannes told me about a Pizza from a pan a friend made for him. It came to me the thought of my first try of a vegan gluten free Pizza in Bali. My Basil was proliferate so we went to the market without further ado to get the missing ingredient to create the first Way Jambu Pizza with Tofu as cheese substitute. 6 hours drive to get mozzarella since we have waived. The Pizza not only looks good, but surprisingly also tastes awesome which was mainly due to the spice mixture of the tofu. It didn’t stay one time, I was allowed to make one again just a week later.

Also Ida tries in daily in cooking but it seems to me making fire is more interesting then the taste of the food. Every day she comes to get lighter. The world is so different over here, no adult who oversees that. What a freedom.

This coconut shells are simply unique, so versatile and the people here just burn them. I think earlier they got used frequently for cooking food. But today everyone has a gas cooker, they just lost their valency. That’s what happen to many things. As longer I live this easy life as more I figure out and now from distance and the luxury of a German life I even can I even see again more. My two different worlds, so opposite and so instructive, percipient!

As you can easily recognize in the pic ahead, I’ve started a fence. Wondering how long it will keep the cows out, cause in the garden around our rented house I frequently chase them out. So no big planting plans so far for our land, cause I am to far away to hear the cows passing the boarders. But in any case everything is growing slowly or as fast as possible with our own man (woman) power. Our tree house was for example was done until a bunch of our neighbor kids came by to play. It must have been to many, cause the tree has given 1 m way so we had to support the tree and put stakes under our platform. More safe and less shaky, something we can look forward until we back home (we took of the ladder).

There is more to look forward to. Our half adult chicks, badly hatched chicks, freshly sown and then this small calf, which is so trustful so we can touch it. There are not to many of them. All anticipation. Unfortunality Kiki died already, our attempt to keep her warm didn’t worked out. She got a cold , the Virus was to strong.

For me was and is still the most beautiful THE WAVE. Looks like Not only for me as long we got some swell. If our pipeline running well people come over just for a look or for try to ride her. Some are able and its wonderful to see her giving joy. Lets see how much joy she will give in the main season, which didn’t even started jet.

Past weeks the rainy season in their last moves had once again really shown itself. It rained regularly in the afternoon. So constant on such a duration I have not experienced the entire rainy season. Not that the rain bothers us only very amazing to have so much rain so late in the year. Anyway we and the plants had loads of fun with it.

And then on our last day we had a little tour through our hinterland and found this wonderful spot: Sea and rice field view in one go and even better both around 80 m above the sea level. Not that I am afraid of a tsunami, just a perfect little spot.

I am already looking forward to my home because I feel connected somehow with this area. So crazy! But as long we are in Germany there will nothing happening back home, cause I am the driving part. I will use the time anyway for example to renew my website. Hopefully it will work out with our full schedule, but what has to be done has to be done. THat’s why
SeE yOu SooN

And an other 2 Weeks gone. I guess I should get used to the new rhythm instead of complaining. So much lost energy which I can truly use in much better ways. And there are so many. Like the big wedding our neighbors last week, where I helped to prepare the food. They are not really neighbors but they life close enough that the music shook our house for nights. I have been more than happy after the last night party over there, cause it took all together 5 days almost sleepless nights. And I love the silence down here, even more after this crazy party! All the woman from the village met every morning to bake and cook for this spectacle. And me sitting in between and not being a part. Lampungnese they talked mostly, which is so far away from Indonesian that I have to learn a fourth language I guess. But it didn’t really border me, I guess they just talked about the underwear their husbands or maybe me. So not really interesting stuff.

Even for the kids Lampungnese is a impediment to find fast together. They all speak Indonesian, but still they don’t do it or fall easily back into their mother tongue. We will organize some kids to teach us soon, its just a shame see the kids struggling. They still have fun playing on our land with the others but I guess it could be way more often.

Lots to see what we created the past time. Actually Jo just wanted to have a place to sit in the morning to check the waves and drink his coffee. But it turned out we needed more: 2 benches, 1 table, 1 rubbish bin, 1 welcome sign, 1 dream catcher and a Swing. Ever since its quite hard to leave that place, as specially when swell arrived and some good surfer have been in the line up.

And this we got a couple of times during the WSL in Tanajung Setia. They had some start problems on the first day, so the Pro’s came over to get some barrels in the pipeline. I can tell you, better like watching TV! What a joy to see the boys having fun in here.

And then it was the day and Ida showed up with two eggs! What a surprise and what a taste! Ida didn’t wanted to eat them, cause she wants to have chicks. She will get some, they lay more often an egg, not like i thought every day, but hey our own eggs! Again learned something..

Proud bees owner we are too in between! One day Jo helped out and cutting a tree on our neighbors place, but this tree was hollow and filled up with honeycomb. Our neighbor disdained this present, so we packed them in the car and moved them to our land. Nobody was stung and they accepted their new place astonishingly. Resettlement completed successfully. I had thought it could be a problem. And again something learned and an other new field to study: how to harvest honey.

Ida has now become 7 years and this whole day turned around her and her wishes. So our day started with cornflakes for breakfast, Ice cream for brunch, French Fries for Lunch, Babychino (which I can do myself meanwhile), cake for Coffee time and Pizza for dinner followed by Stick bread and Marsh mellows at the campfire. What a Kids Day! And in between always a movie.

And then the kids have discovered how great the riff is on low tide for snorkeling. One day I joined and I am also pretty impressed from the furrow where the riff left and right is rising up. So beautiful! And there are also fishes. Just small ones but still heaps and colorful. An other Job to do! Finding out the names. For the kids it is so fascinating they want to go out now every day. Understandable, discovering an other world is quite attractive..

But backgammon is still the one and only in Ida’s life. Every where and any time! Even against herself but preferably with our visitor, which is caught right after the shower for the next game 😉

Finally I have a working cell phone again. Life is so easy when Technic is available around the corner and running well. But who want a easy life? Definitely not me, that’s why I live where I live. I figured out for myself that easy going bores me and brings me away from the value of the things. Anyway I am glad to be able to take easy pictures again and do the blogging from home. That makes life less complicated and I hope I get back in the flow fast writing weekly. Hope the pics I made are not to badly quality, Sorry for that.

Loads of things happen in the last days, so much I hardly can even remember. Luckily I write every day a summery of our happenings in a what’s app chat, kind of a dairy for. My Pics are usually doing a great job, but they can’t catch thoughts.

We will postpone our building plans because Jo isn’t sure about continue living here. He prefer easy. That’s why we will focus on planting first and watch how we can adapt here. So I started to upgrade our garden around the house. I found so many unused roof tiles, so I asked the house owner if I could use them and look, I made some nice looking beds out of it hoping to grow some daily used veggies. Ok, chia (like at the pic above) is nothing we daily use for cooking, but still I wanna keep an eye on it, why I planted close to the house. The cows are really into everything green and I had to shoo them already a couple of times out of our garden.

But we also worked on our land and started to arrange some high beds. The whole bunch of old wood I collected from our rubbish mountain. Hopefully it will do their job, in particular preserve the water for the dryer season, like I read in the Permaculture books.

Many hours I thought about how to design the garden. So many variations are possible and so many changes already again One of our chicken got sick and died so I guess disinfection by sun will help to reduce sickness in the chick and duck cage. Still learning by doing.

Ever after I bought a wheelbarrow the kids like to join us to the garden. Looks like a ride in there is worth to join. For the village kids it seems also a perfect toy.

That’s the way I always imagine who a Farmer looks like. With getting some straw from the rice fields I realized my perception. This day was definitely hot as it looks like, but a light breeze minimized the heat. I filled up pretty fast half of the car. It’s still inside till today cause we don’t have a nice spot to store it properly. Nice playground for the kids even its itchy so they have to shower afterwards. Also for longer travels with our beloved Moggel are now more comfy and getting a different value.

By the way itchiness, we really got loads stinging nettle down here. I am surprised. They are not only nice in a Salad and tea, but rather good as liquid manure to get rid of pests. Glad I brought a pair of gloves for garden work.

I also went surfing last week. The riff properly ripped up my feet. That knocked me out for a couple of days. I could hardly walk and the surf wasn’t even worth it. I just followed: “If you don’t go you will never know!” At least I know now I should use booties at low tide.

Anyway our kids love the chicken and run after them to hug and play with them daily. I have to remind them, that they are animals and don’t belong in the house. But it’s sooo cute to see them cuddling and having fun with them.

And than, we were lucky run into some nice people from Bali just filming our beautiful peaceful place with a drone during walking to the beach in the morning. Main season slowly starts, with increased regularity we bump into Westerners visiting the wave of Way Jambu. I really hope this wonderful quiet place will be like that for the next 30 years and the airport don’t get his planed extension. Cause Kuta Beach looked the same for sure a half century ago.

My phone felt into the river last week, so I couldn’t take that much pictures anymore. We are owning a prisma lense, Spiegelreflex Camera but this one, we rare carry with us and she also has already some senility. Slowly i reach the then goal, surfing less the internet with my phone, although I don’t like it not anymore.

Great pics can be taken with this cam and look! My Chia is growing! I am looking forward to harvest and regrow them.

I tried for the first time to bake a bread over here without a oven. Everything is possible I have to say, the bread was awesome and in a few minutes gone! Maybe the taste was stunning because the sorghum Ida hand grounded with our new coffee grinder. Unfortunate my pot didn’t survive this experiment, for me it was worth it, not so for Jo. but now he got a new job, plant pot. I’m sure the pot doesn’t mind.

We spent some more time on our Land last week. Jo smashed down all the bushes almost all over our land with 4 woman in a whole day. Since then we have a look through and ideas grow where to build and plant. Less trees might be also a reason for the inventiveness. Jo extra bought a machine to cut this beautiful creatures, cause for planting you need light, so they had to die. so sad. 4 from 50, the rest will stay and we will adjust our garden to them. Anyway we have to take care now of a whole bunch of biomass.

The sawing machine broke down after 4 days only. We bought them in Bandar Lampung, not that close to fix or exchange it as quick we would like to. This kind of obstacles getting more and more. But what to do, if you make a problem out of it you will have stress. So better take it easy and use the energy to find solutions or other ways. This I think makes life more livable.

That’s our biggest issue, over years our neighbors dropped their rubbish here, but not only their wrapping also cow manure and wood scraps. Sooo fertile soil! We wanna separate it from the plastic, what a endeavor cause its a mountain. And what we are going to do with all the rubbish? For that we have a nice idea, we wanna fill milk boxes and use them to build walls for a house (we already informed some places to collect this boxes for us and we got our first 100 together). But after 2 days picking junk from our land and pushing them into this milk boxes I figured out, that we will need a lot more waste like our land will provide. But no worry here is no one else collecting trash, so we will find a way.

We not only worked on our land last week, we also went surfing. I have surfed our home break again and I realized I get more relaxed in here and go for more waves (when it is small). But somehow I am to slow or the waves are to fast for me so that day we moved to Tanjung Setia for a other session. Over there it was way smaller and I actually didn’t want to go again, but Jo convinced me. During I surfed our kids had loads of fun playing with this skateboard.

And then our avocado tree in front of our rented house was harvest. 5 big bags full of beautiful shaped untreated avocados. Jo helped out so we got some as well. Unfortunate they didn’t listen to Jo during harvest, so one fell unlucky and made a wonderful bump in his new motorbike. He was pretty upset and tried to get the bump out the rest of the day.

During checking the waves in Mandiri we met this surfed out boys. As we know Jo loves to talk, so he ended up pritty fast laughing loudly with the boys about surf stories.

And then he came home with some new chicken. This time he bought a mom with 6 kids and another adult chicken. Lets see how long they will last for this time. I really hope one day I can eat my first self collected eggs. The kids are more then happy to have some new playmates and hunt them every day for hugging. They get each day better and faster in catching or do the chicks get used to it? In any case we have a new morning ritual: getting up early and feed and free our animals.

Slow but sure we arrive and get used to our new environment. I am still excited and totally in love with that place but Jo’s excitement is limited. He miss the easy going life of Bali. I really hope its just a questions of time until he adapt and get used to it. The future will show it.